


Hungry

by wanderingminstrel



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-14 18:14:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3420668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingminstrel/pseuds/wanderingminstrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sugawara Koushi was pale and slim and Sawamura Daichi had never seen him eat a meal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hungry

Sugawara Koushi was pale and slim and Sawamura Daichi had never seen him eat a meal.

He realized this in first year and once he did it became harder and harder not to watch the other boy. Of course their teammates noticed his attention, but he didn’t really care what they called him. There were worse nicknames in the world than _Guard Dog_.

In fact, if he had to credit something for the following two years, perhaps it would be that name.

Befriending him started off slowly, but it began, most notably, with eating lunch together.

Or… _not_ eating lunch, in Sugawara’s case.

Daichi gave it a week before he finally popped the question.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

Sugawara simply blinked at him with an expression that Daichi couldn’t read. “No.” He said, the word an exhale. “I already ate.”

By their third year, Daichi hated that excuse.

_‘I already ate.’_

He’d heard it more times than he could count.

And yet Sugawara never lost or gained weight. He was rarely sick. He remained fairly pale but he never looked terribly under the weather. And therefore Daichi decided that that would have to be the end of it. Whatever he ate, whenever he ate it, it wasn’t any of his business. If Sugawara didn’t trust him enough to tell him or if it just made him uncomfortable to eat around others, then he would respect that. It stung, but what could he do?

That was, until, Sugawara got sick.

It was the third practice match in a row that they’d lost and the team’s morale hit an all time low. Sure, a little speech could pick someone up once. Maybe twice. But after the third time Hinata was subdued and Kageyama was quiet and the rest of the team followed suit. No one liked losing, but worse even was that they couldn’t figure out _why_ they were losing. Everyone just felt off. It happened, Daichi knew. Sometimes classes and stress and the weather could shift the momentum of practice. By next week, they’d all bounce back, he was sure.

Later he was angry at himself for overlooking it, but Sugawara had been strangely out of it too.

A day passed. Two. And practice continued on as it always had, but spirits were low and for whatever reason most were looking forward to the break the weekend would bring. Even the first years seemed less fired up than usual, as though they were contemplating their failures as they tossed the ball.

“I really don’t know what to do about them.” Daichi admitted to Sugawara off on the sidelines, away from prying ears. “The coach said he—,”

The other boy had been leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed, but as Daichi looked at him his head slumped down as though he’d suddenly nodded off. And then, just like that, he began to wilt into a sideways fall.

“Suga!” Daichi yelped, catching him and helping him onto the floor. The third year was limp and unresponsive and he didn’t need to look up to know that those shadows and the squeaks of approaching trainers were their teammates. He leaned down to check his breathing and then his pulse—both seemed fine.

“Hey! One of you go get the nurse.” The coach barked and Hinata jumped.

“I will!” He said before bolting.

Kageyama followed him out.

Ukai made a noise at that and shook his head before kneeling to get a better look at Sugawara. “What happened?”

Daichi shook his head. “He just suddenly collapsed.”

“Maybe it’s stress… or a lack of sleep…” Ukai mused to himself before waving his arms to shoo the other volleyball team members back. “Give him space! And go home! Practice is over early today.”

They all retreated save for Asahi and Nishinoya, the sound of shoes on gym floor dropping to silence.

It was the latter who leaned down to feel Sugawara’s face and forehead. “He’s… kind of cold, don’t you think?”

Daichi pressed down the urge to scold him in favor of checking for himself. “... He is.” A cold sweat? No, he was just… cool to the touch. His hand shifted to Sugawara’s cheek just as brown eyes fluttered open.

They stared at one another.

A flush broke out on Sugawara’s face as the setter quickly sat up, forcing Daichi to fall back into the wall.

“W- what is… uh… that is to say, how did I— u- um…” Sugawara made a motion with his hands as if to say ‘everything is fine’, while his words struggled to keep up. He swallowed, looked around, and exhaled a nervous laugh. “Whoops.”

“... ‘Whoops’?” Daichi repeated, deadpan.

“Are you alright? You fainted.” Nishinoya informed him, squatting as he peered at his face.

When Sugawara shied away, Dachi gave a small shove to the libero’s head that put him off balance.

“H- hey!”

“Are you okay?” Daichi asked for himself.

Sugawara blinked at him. “Oh, yes.” He said, looking sheepish. “I just forgot to eat.”

To the others maybe that statement didn’t mean anything.

To Daichi, it meant _everything_.

After managing to send back the slightly worried nurse and ward off the concerned coach, Daichi eliminated distractions one by one. Asahi went home. Nishinoya went home.

Sugawara was left alone with him and from his nervous fidgeting he _knew_ it.

“Here.” Sweet bread that he hadn’t eaten at lunch. Sugawara didn’t reach out and take it. Instead he stared at it as though he wasn’t sure what he was expected to do. Daichi pressed it into his hands.

“Oh… thank you.” Sugawara told him before shifting to put the item in his bag.

Daichi caught his wrist. “ _Eat it_.”

A deer in headlights—Sugawara appeared bewildered.

“You can’t, can you? You won’t eat anything in front of me, will you?”

The other third year suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I…”

“Why not? It’s just food. I won’t judge you if you eat in a funny way.”

Sugawara exhaled a laugh as his head fell forward. He toed at the ground, feeling the bread between slim fingers. “You never said anything before.” He commented.

“I assumed you didn’t want to talk about.”

At that, Sugawara nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

Daichi looked away. The sun had set a short while ago. They were expected to go home. “Why?”

His only response was the crinkling of an unopened bread wrapper.

He looked at his vice captain, his teammate—his friend. “Why?”

Sugawara looked back at him, expression solemn. He handed the bread back and began to walk.

Before Daichi could yell at him for just ignoring him like that, the other boy glanced back.

“Come on. Let’s talk somewhere else.”

Daichi could only follow.

They ended up by a channel that ran through the city, where man made, grass covered hills sloped down to the water. Sugawara’s pace slowed until he stopped and they idled there by a tree under a sky that was barely beginning to pepper with stars.

Sugawara looked at him for a long moment.

“I’m sorry.”

Daichi frowned. “You’re not going to explain?”

“No, I mean… I’m sorry I lied to you.” The other boy explained. “By omission.” His expression was heavy with shame as he fiddled with the strap of his bag.

He had Daichi’s full attention now, but then again he’d never _not_ had it.

Sugawara looked self-conscious suddenly, one hand coming up to rub at his opposite arm. “I know that you… wondered. A lot.” He admitted. Then again, with the time they had spent together it would be hard not to notice. “I didn’t know how to tell you so I just… didn’t.”

“Is it an eating disorder?” Daichi murmured, feeling guilt twist in his gut for not confronting him before it had gotten out of hand.

“What?” Sugawara was staring him, startled. “No!”

Daichi flinched back. “It’s not?” He balked. “But you collapsed—,”

“I’m a _vampire_.” Sugawara told him, suddenly indignant if not a little nervous. Whatever willpower he’d scrapped together to say that must have drained him because he started to fret. “I— I… I feed off of other peoples’ emotions and that’s kind of, well… you could say it’s weird. How was I supposed to tell you that? It’s strange, right? So I just… well…”

Sugawara wasn’t a very good liar. And this wasn’t a lie. But Daichi peered at him critically regardless. “You’re… a vampire…” He repeated slowly.

The other third year tensed visibly and nodded. “Y- yes…”

“So you collapsed because…”

Sugawara stood straighter and looked at him. “Normally I manage to siphon plenty from our team—uh… _energy_ , that is. I don't suck blood or anything like that. But lately…”

They were all in low spirits.

So Sugawara couldn’t eat.

He didn’t _forget_ , he just wasn’t able to have a meal.

“Being around negative energy is a little… draining.” The setter added, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I can feel all of it, but it doesn’t, um… It isn’t nourishment. Negativity, I mean.”

“Do you drain the energy when you take it?” Daichi asked, serious.

Sugawara shook his head. “N- no! Well, maybe a little, but not enough that anyone would ever notice! I wouldn’t do that—I _couldn’t_ do that. I just take a very tiny amount.”

Daichi regarded him.

It was all really difficult to process, quite honestly. He wasn’t sure what to think. But if it was the truth then it was the truth. And it felt like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders to know the real origin of his friend’s suffering…

“You feed off of positive emotions?” He murmured.

Sugawara nodded slightly, still waiting for a reaction of some sort to all that he had told him.

Daichi leaned in and kissed him.

The other boy went rigid.

Pulling away, Daichi bumped foreheads. “Can you feed off of these kinds of feelings too?”

He leaned back with a smile as Sugawara looked at him, a sheen of wetness in the other boys’ eyes. Whatever his reaction, he wasn’t crying. Not yet anyway. His mouth, instead, shifted into an embarrassed smile.

He slapped Daichi’s back affectionately hard.

“I- If we don’t hurry back you’ll miss your dinner. Oh! I know. I’ll race you!” Sugawara stammered, seemingly much more energetic now as he took off into a jog, his face bright red.

Daichi could only shake his head as he grinned at his back.

That was _definitely_   a yes.

He met him for lunch the next day as he did every day.

But for the first time, when asked about if he’d eaten Sugawara said:

“No, not yet.”

So Daichi joined him. And they ‘dined’ together.

He had all the time in the world to learn more about the why’s and how’s of Sugawara Koushi being a vampire.

But for now he was content to watch over him and see him in good health—his faithful _Guard Dog_.


End file.
